Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Change is possible: We can

6 kilometers
away from the Varanasi airport and near to railway line of Pindra halt 60 families of musahar resides
in southern part of Sarai village of Pindra block of Varanasi. While entering
the ghetto it is easy to feel the changes happened in our life and development
in the ghetto. A good connecting pavement road with solar light, electricity,
re-boring of two hand pump and 19 families identified for the Lohia Awas Yojana
(Housing scheme). Says Sunita, a local resident of Sarai musahar ghetto.

This development happened with the continuous
engagement of the community and PVCHR with timely implementation of the
strategy. They sit together and decided to bring the complaint before the open
hearing on atrocities against Scheduled Castes(SC) organized by National Human Rights Commission (NHRC)
in Varanasi on 25 – 26 November, 2013. They made complaint to the commission all
the minutes of the folk school, community meeting and also individual
testimonies.

The musahars with the full confidence and
without any fear were narrating entire self –suffering in front of the two
presiding officers of the open hearing “First time I
feel honoured when Bada Sahab (Big official) listen my testimony very
carefully.” said Mutana, a
community leader.Looking their confidence I remember the day when few bonded
labours (Ram Dayal and others) from this village came to PVCHR office along
with Mangla Prasad, Senior field activist[i]. They were very afraid and
unable to share the self – suffering. Now after 2 ½ years they have been healed
and transformed as human rights defenders; they are fearless and now ready to
face and confront their perpetrators; they are now in a better position to
reclaim and attain their rights.

Sarai is successful example of sandwich model of
our initiative. One hand on the grass- root level breaking the culture of
silence and eliminating the fear through psycho-social and the legal support
and pressure from ground and above on the administration and state Government by
National Human Rights Commission, Supreme Court, National and International
players. If social movement are supporting most marginalized people on grass-
root level and HRIs of this country become empathetic for the rights of most
marginalized then you have model like Sarai village, says, Lenin Raghuvanshi, Founder and
CEO of PVCHR

PVCHR and dignity initiative adopted Sarai village as torture free model
village in 2010.A village constructing a
new culture which is driven by knowledge and spirit to deal effectively with
any human rights violations and prevent any potential unrest by cultivating
embracing attitudes. The community people are now speaking more gently and
respectfully with one another. The community leaders have started taking the
initiative of organizing the community meeting. During the meeting they are
mindful of resolving disputes that are happening in their communities and those
presented for resolution. As best as possible, they are trying to manage their
own problems. On the whole, the people’s fear of the police has greatly
decreased.

The musahar ghetto of Sarai village is bonded
labour free village. This was possible with the tireless process and community
aspiration for change the community people decided not work as bonded labour in
any establishment and now working under MNREGA Scheme. They understood the
importance of education and now they enrolled their children in near Government
Primary School. Bablu Said, “Our younger brother and sister faced
discrimination in the school but after the intervention now they got uniform
and getting same behavior like other children, Anganwadi is providing nutritious
diet and ANM is regularly visiting our ghetto for immunization”.

Mahavir, Community leader, our self-respect
increase when people from different places come to visit our places. First time
Government officials are coming to visit our ghetto[ii].
Before that no one visit to our ghetto. We also have my own identity as our
dignity. Children got their birth registration certificate and for voter ID
card form 7 was filled by the concerned authorities. In the absence of these "identity" cards, even the most basic
rights sometimes get trespassed, resulting in exploitation and discrimination,
and even violence.[iii]

Now the community leaders are
monitoring all the schemes. We are inculcating their knowledge and skill
through continuous capacity building workshops on various act and guideline and
participation in various programme. Now the people from different communities
are coming to this ghetto and seeking help from them. said Shiv
Pratap Chaubey, Model Block Co-ordinator, Pindra Block

Recently Fr Bernardo Cervellera, Director of Asianews and 31
other people from Italy visited Musahar ghetto Sarai village of Pindara,
Varanasias tribute honour to heroic
nonviolence fight of Musahar people.

The success of Sarai village achieved by the people of Sarai is making ripple
effect struggle against poverty, injustice, caste system and torture and
organized violence as a slogan: You can

Shirin Shabana Khan is Program
Director at management committee and Program Manager of PVCHR – Dignity initiative
“Healing and Empowering marginalized Committee in India”